Apple

2011 – Microsoft is discontinuing the Zune media player on This Day in Rock! Launched five years ago in the hope of taking on the iPod, MS calls it quits. The player was well reviewed when it launched in 2006, and it grabbed as much as 10 percent of the market for media players. But […]

2010 – Apple launches social network for music called Ping Steve Jobs: “It’s a social network all about music” Apple has launched a social network as part of the latest version of its iTunes software. Ping, as it is known, allows users to build networks of friends and professional musicians, in a similar way to […]

2010 – iTunes Store Tops 10 Billion Songs Sold. iTunes does it again. Pretty impressive… and Johnny Cash earns yet another footnote in Music History. CUPERTINO, California—February 25, 2010—Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 10 billion songs from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com), the world’s most popular online music, TV and […]

1942 – Paul McCartney is born in Liverpool, England. The Beatles have 20 No. 1 songs, more than any other recording act, and McCartney by himself or in duets has another nine. His biggest post-Beatles hits are “Ebony and Ivory,” a duet with Stevie Wonder that stays at No. 1 for seven weeks, and “Say […]

2008 – Neil Aspinall, who ran the Apple Corps music empire for the Beatles from 1970 – 2007 died at a hospital in New York from cancer aged 66. A school friend of Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he was regarded by some of the band as the “fifth Beatle” becoming he the Beatles’ […]

2004 – Apple launched the U2 Special Edition iPod as part of a partnership between Apple, U2 and Universal Music Group. The new U2 iPod held up to 5,000 songs and featured a red Click Wheel and custom engraving of U2 band member signatures. The iPod was being introduced as the band released their new […]

2004 – Eminem sues computer giant Apple, alleging they used his hit “Lose Yourself” in TV ads for their iPod player without his permission. The controversial rapper’s lawsuit says he would not endorse any product for less than $10 million.